Frankfurt/New Delhi: "India is becoming ever more important as a production location and market for the German automotive industry and its suppliers. The number of German brand cars exported to India in 2007 doubled compared with the year before. With sales worth 154 million euros, our suppliers were able to increase their exports to India by more than half in the first nine months of 2007 compared with the same period the year before. For the whole of 2007 we expect our suppliers to achieve export sales of over 200 million euros", declared Achim Rauber, Managing Director of the VDA, at Auto Expo 2008 in New Delhi, India.

In addition to the many individual exhibitors of vehicles and parts from Germany, 30 companies from the automotive supply industry will be presenting their innovative capabilities in the German Pavilion initiated by the VDA and promoted by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

Rauber emphasised that the German automotive industry's investments in India had risen steeply in recent years. The number of production plants of German companies had increased in the last ten years from 34 to over 60. Ten major German suppliers alone employed a workforce of over 25,000 in India, and sales had reached around 1.2 billion euros. To date these companies had already invested 380 million euros in India; a further 250 million euros were planned for the coming years.

"In addition there are investments from manufacturers who want to expand their local production base substantially", explained the VDA Managing Director. He mentioned the cooperation arrangement between MAN and Force Motors, BMW's start in Chennai, the decision of Volkswagen and Audi to start production in India and Daimler's announcement to enter India’s commercial vehicle and bus market. "These investments offer additional chances for the supplier industry too, for both German and Indian companies", said Rauber.

He went on to say that trade between India and Germany had increased substantially. "The new cooperation arrangements between Indian manufacturers and European partners conversely mean a quality step forward for India's industry too." For instance, in the first three quarters of the year 2007 alone, cars worth 25 million euros had been exported from India to Germany. The supply industry in India had increased its exports to Germany in the first nine months of the year by over 20 percent, taking them up to over 140 million euros. Rauber stressed, "German companies also want to produce and buy more in India in future. The VDA therefore sees the German Pavilion as a contact bourse for new business partners too. "We see ourselves as an automotive industry association to be bridge-builders between Germany and India as well", emphasised Rauber. He believed that the free trade agreement currently being negotiated between India and the European Union would promote and boost trade further.

In New Delhi Rauber explained the chances open to the Clean Diesel car, especially on the Indian car market. "German manufacturers and suppliers are world leaders in this field of technology. With its enormous fuel efficiency, the Clean Diesel has major potential to reduce CO2 emissions of new vehicles in India too and can thus make an effective contribution to climate protection and to improving the environment", said the VDA Managing Director. "However, for this high-quality diesel fuel (at most 50 ppm) such as has long been standard in Europe must be available at Indian filling stations too in the near future."

Rauber continued by saying that the VDA cultivated intensive partnership relations with its partner associations in India – ACMA for the suppliers and SIAM for the manufacturers. "There are many activities with both associations and their members within the context of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the parties. For instance just a few months ago the SIAM-VDA -Mission Plan was signed at the IAA in Frankfurt. This opened up further fields of cooperation between companies in the two countries." Rauber reminded listeners that the Indian Minister of Industry, Mohan Dev – alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel – had been a prominent speaker at the IAA opening ceremony.